Royal style and gossip: photo calls and tennis balls

[QueenOfTheAndals]

Everyone ready for a joint Wimbledon Duchessing?

Queen Margrethe is very creative and has an artist’s quite flamboyant tastes. Sometimes that makes for some interesting outfits!

I agree on not liking Pippa’s outfits, but then I don’t like those long floral dresses with extra ruffles or the bits added on the end. Or those Vampire’s Wife things. Can’t wait for them to go!

This was a few pages back, but on not talking to the Queen - apparently when she visited Radio 1 they were all instructed to wait until she spoke to you etc but then she got to Nick Grimshaw and he just went “HIYAAA!!” - cue glares from the Royal entourage etc!

That "don't speak until she speaks to you" bollocks is why I can't really support the monarchy. They are not our betters. Anything which erodes that is a step forward as far as I'm concerned.

I'd say that's dying out though. I don't think Charles is that wierd about that stuff. He always seems quite jolly and animated on walkabouts.

I'm not sure HM would care much either - it's the men in grey who would!

Princess Alexandra is lovely but does the don’t speak to me first thing.

Agreed @AFifthOfKoolAid

Dd met Charles recently and he was very chatty and interested, she certainly wasn't told not to ask questions. I would think it's a generational thing. I'm sure HM was used to a more deferential attitude from the public when she was younger.

Would you @SlipperOrchid ?

Maybe I also wanted to share a thought, seeing as I've been on these threads daily and have interacted with these women more than anyone else on MN. I don't really want to just slink off.

Only if that's okay, like.

I’m not crazy about either of the Duchesses’ dresses from yesterday really. DoC’s would have been nicer if the neckline was lower, I just thought it came up far too high, and the side pleats made it look like someone had just wrapped her up in blue roll, it just all looks a bit bunched up.

DoS’s dress was just too tight across the bodice and the waistline seemed rather high. Not a fan of the slicked down hair either. Gorgeous shoes though.

I don’t want to make this about weight again, but those on the other thread who say she never eats - she has toned arms and legs so she must be eating enough to a) get the energy to exercise and b) build muscle.

She’ll be eating plenty IMO. She looks well and you can’t fake that for years on end. My guess is some variation of LCHF/low carb which is a great way to eat and also gives you great skin, great energy levels and plenty of fuel for exercise.

She’s got slimness in her genes and she is obviously disciplined, but it’s not a given that she’s starving herself. It’s not hard to stay slim if you’re slim already and food/emotional eating isn’t your comfort mechanism.

Not that I like talking about weight, either.

Flounce away Audacity - do whatever floats your boat

I'm sure HM was used to a more deferential attitude from the public when she was younger.

It is probably generational.

My MIL who is far from royalty would see being asked a question directly (off topic) as being bad mannered. Everything is firmly on her terms. She is an awkward old woman though to be fair!

She also an elderly lady, in her nineties. She’s likely not going to be great at ‘winging it’ with people and situations and aides may actually be trying to protect her from being overwhelmed or ambushed by people.

Yes my own grandmother was very much like this once she got to her 90s. A question she wasn’t expecting often elicited a rude/dismissive/confused answer.
People like to say she manages amazingly for her age- which of course she does but it’s not reasonable to expect that she has the cognitive function of someone 10/20/30/40/50 years younger!

I'd love an afternoon dressing up in Margrethe's clothes. I'd love to have her sense of style and rate her as much as Max for exuberance.

I would imagine the question thing is to prevent them being asked the kind of question they can't/don't want to answer. You know, the kind of innocent questions any of us would ask over lunch with another woman but that DoC and other royals don't want to answer because it gets out into the public domain. Things about family and backgrounds etc. I mean, if I'm sitting next to someone at lunch and I knew they had similar aged kids, there would be natural chat about what the kids like/don't like or how you cope when one is trying to get to Scouts and th other one needs to be at band practice. But those questions, innocent though they are, are dangerous for the royal family. And not answering just looks weird.

I mean, I just ran into one of the dad's from DS's school. We chatted about our respective work habits (We're both self employed) and I asked him where he was based these days and how many days he works (this is a question fraught for Kate who is always accused of workshynesss); he asked me about DH's time working in an activity his daughter is doing; we had a general give and take session about after school facilities at our mutual school and the school his DS goes to.

All of these questions are just complicated for Kate to answer in public.

Frankly, even something as innocent as "Who is your favourite tennis player of all time" is probably tricky. What if she says Martina and then gets drawn into a chat re trans issues? Or she says Agassi and it turns into some ridiculous DM headline, "Kate longs for return of Agassi"?

Interesting programme with Queen Margrethe. Centred on her faith and her connection to the Church, but also lots of vintage footage of important events in her life, and the queen’s direct commentary on them. Not the best translation (I think it’s google translate rather than a true translation), but well worth a watch IMO.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=eHW-2REvFtc

As ridiculous as it sounds, you're right @BlingLoving, that's totally the kind of headline they'd write. Look at the other day's one about Kate and Meghan joining forces "to watch Serena LOSE (sic) the final"!

Quite @BlingLoving - the media would have a field day interpreting a question to fit their warped narrative.

Margarethe must be fascinating to sit next to at dinner - she's a very educated and talented woman.

The sad thing is that a lot of the time, eg at a private members lunch at wimbledon, most people wouldn't dream of going to the press or facebooking what she says. But it only takes 1 in 50 and wham, it becomes a dangerous precedent.

The school run must be challenging. I hear that she really does do it often. But god, the general chit chat must be pretty tricky. Half my school run chat is me and any other random parent exchanging exasperated glances and irritated eye rolls as we attempt to shepherd the kids through the door. Occasionally enlivened by a comment about how DS wouldn't leave the house because he'd spilled toothpaste down his jumper or the other parent telling me they'd had a blazing row about what to put on their toast this morning. All innocent chats that would be a disaster for Kate....

I am not keen on this stiff fabric look to make the skirt stand out. It is like that funny polystyrene looking packing stuff. My mother achieved this with petticoats which imo. looked much nicer. Can you imagine if the royals started using petticoats like that they would storm the market again.